Antique Nutcrackers
My wife and I started collecting antique nutcrackers from Germany a couple of years ago. We learned about them when we hosted a foreign exchange student from Dresden, Germany.
Ebay was just coming into its own at that time and an astonishing array of nutcrackers and smokers from the Erzgebirge region could be bought for very little. In fact, you could buy old nutcrackers for much less than the cost of new ones in Germany.
German smokers are also made in the Erzgebirge region of Germany and many collectors buy both smokers and nutcrackers.
Smokers are hand made from wood by craftsmen just like the nutcrackers. They come in a huge variety of shapes, colors, and sizes.
At Christmas incense cones are placed inside them and lit. Smoke comes out their noses and permeates the house. It's a nice tradition, especially if you enjoy having handcrafted wood object around your house